Washable clothing items which come in pairs, such as socks and gloves, present a tedious chore for the individual responsible for doing the laundry. Many athletic socks and dress socks look virtually identical, but are made out of different fibers and the like, so that they do not feel the same when worn. Consequently, the person doing his or her individual or household laundry is faced with the task of matching up pairs of socks or gloves with one another when they come out of the dryer.
Many ways have been suggested to alleviate this problem, but all suffer from one limitation or another. For example, clips, pins and other items that pierce both socks or gloves of the pair have been proposed as a means of maintaining the clothing items together in the washer and dryer. Typically, these fasteners are not readily at hand when one places the socks in the dirty clothes, and therefore are not used. In addition to fasteners which pierce the clothing items, U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,348 to Klotz discloses external bands which can be wrapped around the leg portions of the socks to keep them together during washing. Again, the problem is availability of these bands where one discards the socks or gloves for laundering.
Recognizing that separate fasteners to interconnect the socks is not feasible, others have attempted to mount fastening elements directly to a portion of the socks or gloves so that mating pairs can be connected together when placed in the dirty clothes. For example, snaps or hook and eye fasteners have been mounted on sock pairs so that they can be interconnected prior to laundering. Fasteners of this type are typically metallic or otherwise stiff and unyielding, which can create localized stresses in the socks or gloves during the laundering process in the area(s) where such fasteners are mounted.
In turn, localized forces are developed which can tear the sock fabric in a relatively short period of time. Additionally, metallic and/or stiff fastening elements can be uncomfortable to the wearer of the item. Any discomfort felt against the skin by fastening the elements associated with socks or gloves is unacceptable.
Many of the disadvantages with the clothing item fastening elements noted above are addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,555 to Boxer et al. This patent discloses the use of strips or patches affixed to each sock or glove of a pair, wherein each patch consists of a section of hook fastening elements and another section of loop fastening elements. When the socks or gloves are being worn, the two sections of the patch on each sock are folded into engagement with one another so that the hook and loop fastening elements interconnect and are not exposed. When the socks are removed for laundering, the sections forming the tab of each sock are placed in an "open" position, i.e., disengaged from one another, and then the tab of one sock or glove is releasably interconnected with the tab of the other sock or glove thus connecting the hook fastening elements of one tab with the loop fastening elements of the other tab.
The use of hook and loop fastening elements disclosed in the Boxer et al. patent eliminates many of the problems experienced in the prior art. The tabs or patches which carry the hook and loop fastening elements are permanently affixed to the sock or glove pair and thus problems with separate fastening elements such as hooks, pins, bands and the like are eliminated. Additionally, hook and loop fastening elements do not create localized stresses in the same way as snaps or hooks, and do not detract from the comfort of the clothing item to any noticeable extent. Unfortunately, it has been found that the connection between the sock or glove pair created by the tabs disclosed in Boxer et al. is insufficient to maintain the clothing items in engagement with one another during the laundering process. The various cycles of conventional washing machines, and dryers, can create forces on the sock or glove pairs which readily separates the hook and loop fastening elements of the patches; in the orientation in which they are affixed to the glove or sock pairs as disclosed in Boxer et al.